Mary J. Johnson Woodlen
Mary J. Johnson Woodlen (1870–February 8, 1933) was a prominent suffragist in Wilmington, Delaware. Born in 1870 in Virginia to James and Edmonia Johnson, she moved to Wilmington by 1900 and married John H. Woodlen, Sr., a widower with two children.
Woodlen held leadership roles in civil rights and suffrage work. She was vice president of the Wilmington NAACP chapter, a founding member of the Wilmington Equal Suffrage Study Club, and a well-known religious speaker in Methodist churches. She volunteered at the Layton Home for Aged Colored Persons and served on its Senior Board in the 1910s. In 1913, she helped establish the Thomas Garrett Settlement, which offered kindergarten, art and music classes, athletics, a health clinic, and meeting spaces.
In 1914 she became vice president of the Wilmington NAACP, and in 1916 she formed the Delaware Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, serving as chaplain when the group formed in 1918. The federation supported an Industrial School for Colored Girls, where she sat on the board.
As a founder of the Equal Suffrage Study Club (from its start on March 19, 1914), Woodlen helped build networks among local African American women’s clubs and services. The club supported institutions like the Howard School and the Garrett Settlement. It was one of Delaware’s most active suffrage groups. In May 1914, Wilmington held its first suffrage parade, and the Equal Suffrage Study Club marched, leading the segregated section at the back.
Woodlen also spoke out in newspapers against racist views, challenging stereotypes about Black women voters. In 1921, she joined a delegation to Washington, D.C., to confront the National Woman’s Party over the enforcement of the 19th Amendment. They protested at the 19th St. Baptist Church and then at the NWP headquarters, urging that voting rights be enforced for all.
Politically, Woodlen supported the Republican Party in Delaware. She helped register Black voters and supported the election of Dr. Conwell Banton to the Board of Education. She played a key role in the Wilmington Colored Women’s Republican Club, known as the League of Colored Republican Women, which aimed to register all colored women and boost turnout for the 1920 election. She served on the club’s finance committee and ran for a delegate to the Republican State Convention in 1924, remaining active as a committeewoman through the late 1920s.
A sought-after spiritual guide, Woodlen was a regular speaker in Methodist churches, with notices of her sermons appearing in newspapers. Her husband died in 1915, and she lived with her stepson John.
Mary J. Johnson Woodlen died on February 8, 1933, from diabetes and a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in Mt. Olive Cemetery.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:16 (CET).